Students in the North Juvenile Courts and Community Schools system kept saying two words to their teachers on Thursday: thank you.

“We appreciate you very much,” one girl said in a DVD presentation played during a luncheon held in honor of the program's teachers. “You’re always there for us.”

Another girl said in the video: “Even though you’re kind of strict, you’re still cool."

Some students attending these schools are there by choice, but most have been expelled from their previous school districts. Some are on criminal probation, and for most, this is their last chance at earning a high school diploma.

Their teachers will tell you they can be a real handful.

“A substitute teacher locked herself in the bathroom and cried in her first hour,” said Susan Farrelly, who teaches math and science. “They can be extreme.”

On Thursday, however, teachers officially saw and heard expressions of gratitude from their students. As part of Teacher Appreciation Week, the students' parents organized a thank-you lunch at the North County Regional Education Center in San Marcos, one of the program's nine classroom locations in North County. The event was the first of its kind in North County for the system.

About 2,500 students are enrolled in the school program's eight geographic regions, including about 400 in North County. Classes are held in inconspicuous locations throughout the county, including a site that's next to a laundromat and a Zumba fitness studio in Escondido.

The system also includes four juvenile detention centers that have teachers and classrooms.

Alicia Romero, a liaison for families in the program, said parents on the school site council requested the appreciation lunch.

“When I first started the job, one of the things I heard was that these parents just don’t care,” said Romero, who has worked in the program since 2005. “I’ve seen just the opposite.”

All of the system's 22 teachers in North County were invited, and most showed up Thursday afternoon for a lunch that included carne asada, tortillas, beans, rice, fruit and desserts.

Besides cooking for the teachers, parents also brought flower pots with personalized messages for teachers. Messages written on the plants’ paper leaves described traits of each teacher: “Creative,” “Tenacious,” “Adventurous” and “Empathetic.”

“This is a way to give thanks to all the teachers for the time with our children and the patience they have to help them in their class,” said parent Teresa De Luna, a member of the site council.

Parent Felipa Alfaro has a daughter in the program and a son ready to graduate from it.

“They’ve had a lot of patience with my kids,” she said about the teachers. “They’ve helped them with everything.”

Students did not attend the lunch but appeared in a DVD shot by counselor Chris Toomey, who has been with the program eight years.

Toomey said many students in the school have a void in their lives, perhaps missing a parent, or have endured some kind of traumatic, often violent event.

To reach those students, Toomey said teachers cannot simply stand in front of a board and lecture.

“We have to build up trust before we can teach them math and science,” he said.

Teacher and former probation officer Tammy Reina has been with Juvenile Court and Community Schools for 14 years, with most of her time spend in Juvenile Hall.

Like Romero, Reina said she believes parents of students in the program care very much about their children’s education.

“I think parents, family and youth now struggle with so many things that weren’t there when I was a child,” she said.

Reina said the program sometimes is the first true support system any of the families have ever had.

Seated next to Reina, fellow teacher Farrelly flipped through a stack of homemade thank-you cards students had made for her.

“Thanks for teaching us what we need to learn,” another boy wrote, adding another thanks for being allowed to eat food from McDonald’s in class when hungry.

Farrelly was touched by the cards.

“It means a lot that they actually realize that it takes a lot to teach them,” she said. “They don’t say ‘Thank you’ every day.”

Principal Leilah Kirkendoll said the event was the first of its kind for the north region, and possibly the county, for the program that serves about 12,000 students a year.

As more school districts open their own community day schools, the number of students in the program has decreased over the years, dropping from about 15,000 five years ago.